Ethiopia plans to completely finish the civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) of everyone under the age of 18 in the coming two years.
The country is one of the countries that have weak performance on CRVS in the continent, while the issue has got attention in the past couple of years.
Mujib Jemal, Immigration Nationality and Vital Event Managing Director, told Capital that the government is working strongly to expand the vital registration list which includes birth, death, marriage and divorce.
He said that in the near future the government will undergo massive registration of events. “We have targeted at least to give a birth certificate to everyone in age group under 18 in the coming two years,” he added.
Besides that awareness creation work will be aggressively undertaken, while the society understanding about CRVS is improving compared with the past.
He indicated that in related with the school registration in this academic year that started last month several birth registration accomplished, which indicates how the understanding of the society increased.
“In related with school registration we enabled to attach with birth certificate due to that 1.8 students have registered on birth certificate,” he added.
In relation to the Fifth Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration in Lusaka, FROM October 14 to 18 Ethiopia has shown its experience on CRVS registration of refugees.
Even though the country approved the CRVS proclamation, Registration of Vital Events and National Identity Card Proclamation. No 760/2012, the country was not fully applied until 2016 until Ethiopian Vital Events Registration Agency established which now included under Ministry of Peace. In 2016 the CRVS mainly focus on the citizens has been was commenced that did not include the refugees that the country hosts. The country has also a modern ID system as of 2017, while is not fully applied.
“At the stage we have talked about the refugee civil registration activity. We have understood that the 2012 proclamation has a gap that did not have inclusiveness regarding the civil registration of refuges,” the Immigration Nationality and Vital Event Managing Director said.
Due to that the proclamation was amended in January 2017 and became effective as of October the same year. Zeynu Jemal, State Minister of Peace, explained to participants that more than 13, 000 vital events have been registered in relation to refugees.
Mujib said that more than 10,500 are related with birth registrations in the period going up to August of this year.
It has good solution to integrate the refugee with the society, according to Mujib. Zeynu explained that the process will help those that the country hosts to be part of the economic activity in the country and even allow theme some crucial rights in the economy like to have bank account and get driving license.
Mujib added that the other gap that now the government should improve the proclamation is that it did not also consider the internal displaced people. “We will work on it in the future,” he added.
Ethiopia has also the 10 year development of its strategy to include refugees under the CRVS that allow them to be player on the activity of the country, according Zeynu. He added that further studies are being undertaken to include the refugee in the society.
The proclamation from 2012 established the legal and organizational framework of the vital events registration. The aim is to make civil certificates, which are crucial for any social and economic plans of the country, uniform throughout Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is one of the lowest rates of birth registration in Africa, with only 3 percent of the births of children under the age of five registered with civil authorities, according to 2016 Ethiopia demographic and health survey, which was implemented by the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency.
Ethiopia soon hopes for vital stats of all under 18
Nokia eyes upgrading 4G networks across the country
Nokia is expressing interest in working with the Ethiopian government on world-class telecommunication services and advanced technologies including 4G.
Daniel Jaeger, Head of the Central East and West Africa Market Unit at Nokia, told Capital that Nokia wants to work on Ethiopia’s network expansion.
According to Daniel, Nokia has shifted to research and development and has the world-renowned Nokia Bell Labs that are leading the way to adopting end-to-end 5G networks that are faster, more secure and capable of revolutionizing lives, economies and societies.
Ethio-telecom plans to increase 4G network coverage to smaller towns in Ethiopia soon.
“Based on data traffic growth and demand, 4G network capacity will be rolled out in regional capitals to improve the quality of services and service accessibility,” said Frehiwot Tameru CEO of ethio-telecom.
As part of this effort, ethio-telecom also plans to install more than 5 Million additional mobile network capacities in Addis Ababa and regions to improve network coverage and capacity. Furthermore, to accommodate growing data usage, international gateway capacity will be doubled.
Nokia also signed an agreement to work with Ethiopian technology and science students to reach our goals in technology. Through this collaboration, the students will have access to a world leader with proven expertise in the fields of information and communications technologies.”
”We look forward to helping students acquire the necessary skills in the latest technologies, such as 4G,5G, cloud computing and data analytics.” said Daniel Jaeger.
Nokia create the technology to connect the world and deliver the industry’s only end-to-end portfolio of network equipment, software, services and licensing that is available globally.
“We are excited to as the response of the government to support their objectives to play a leading role in setting standards in the quality of engineering education, research, innovation and business incubation,” Daniel Jaeger adds.
In Ethiopia three multinational telecom companies are working to install network infrastructure. Chinese telecom companies Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. and the Swedish giant Ericsson have been working on a vast mobile network expansion project.
Nokia is a Finnish telecom company that provides customers communications service whose combined networks support 6.1 billion subscriptions, as well as enterprises in the private and public sector that use our network portfolio to increase productivity and enrich lives.
‘Nokia adheres to the highest ethical business standards as we create technology with a social purpose, quality and integrity that has been undertaking mobile network expansion project in various parts of the globe, said Daniel.
Agricultural industry leaders join forces to introduce closed transfer system technology for farmers
ADAMA, BASF, Corteva Agriscience, Nufarm and Syngenta join forces to further improve the way crop protection products are handled by promoting the use of closed transfer system (CTS) technology. The companies are now each piloting the CTS ‘easyconnect’ in selected countries to benefit operators, farmers and the environment. The easyconnect system consists of two components: a unique screw cap – pre-fitted on the containers – and a coupler, which together establish the CTS.
By 2021/2022, a broad range of containers is planned to be equipped with the standardized pre-mounted screw cap and offered to farmers in Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, with other countries likely to follow. “A CTS, such as easyconnect, allows crop protection products to be directly transferred from their original container to the spray tank and to accurately measure the volume of the chemical being transferred. This significantly reduces operator exposure and environmental risks from splashing or spilling,” explained Livio Tedeschi, Senior Vice President Agricultural Solutions EMEA and CIS, BASF SE. “The introduction of a CTS on a broad range of products will have real benefits for the environment by significantly reducing the risk of spills during handling products. Further advantages are seen in the integrated rinsing system, which makes it easier to clean and rinse packaging,” said Xavier Leprince, Head of Business Sustainability EAME at Syngenta. “Today, there is a lot of interest in efficiency on farm. To maximize the time spent in the field on good spraying days, spray operators wish to reduce their loading time without reducing safety. CTS, and in particular easyconnect, help with that. We are convinced farmers will find it beneficial,” said Louise Brinkworth, Product Stewardship Manager Northern Europe, Corteva Agriscience.
Bertrand Lombard, Vice President, ADAMA South Europe, added: “It is a significant benefit for the farmer when the CTS is simple to use; the easyconnect technology reduces the lifting of cans and thereby minimizes the handling of products.” “We would be delighted to see farmers adopting CTS. That is why five of the biggest industry players are now taking a further step to independently test the easyconnect system more broadly and to continually improve the way crop protection products are handled,” said Karina von Detten, Head of Portfolio Solutions EuMEA at Nufarm. Developed by BASF in collaboration with third-party equipment manufacturers, easyconnect has been extensively tested on-farm in selected countries since 2015. Based on farmers’ feedback, the system has been steadily improved in terms of handling and speed, making the filling faster than via the commonly used induction hopper. Further industry players in the agrochemical sector, equipment manufacturers or any other parties interested in joining the launch of easyconnect in the countries mentioned above are welcome to contact any of the five companies for more information.
Violence puts free election in doubt advocates say
Political advocacy groups and electoral elites are expressing concern about the lack of security in some parts of Ethiopia. They say it could hinder the upcoming election. The government says there are no plans to postpone the 2020 election even though some areas of Ethiopia are under command post control while others have been disabled from attacks.
During a recent dialogue organized by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung under the title: ‘election and political parties proclamation of Ethiopia’ senior members of NEBE expressed their concern that if more steps weren’t taken ensure a peaceful climate, it could negatively impact the next election.
The way things are now is making it difficult for all sides to get their views heard, members of the civic association said, adding that the instability affects the election process and fair competition.
The civic society members appreciate the government’s decision encourage civic society to be active in the election process, which was suspended after the 2005 election. They are happy to play a role in a free and fair election process to improve the democratization process. According to them, the peace issue affects their ability to contribute to the election.
Some of the minority parties say the recently amended electrical proclamation is a challenge for them. The proclamation requires national parties to come up with at least 10,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Smaller parties argue that the unstable conditions make it difficult for them to get 10,000 signatures, a dramatic increase from the previous number of 3,000.
Since the proclamation was amended during the extraordinary meeting at the parliament last summer, some of the small parties say that the rules create a rigged system where they can’t compete on the same playing field. However, other parties are happy with the rules.
Sudden attacks and instability have occurred in various parts of Ethiopia. Last week there were killings in SNNP and Afar. Some political parties are reluctant to campaign in towns where unrest may occur, which also presents a challenge for future elections
The election is expected to be held during May 2020. Following the massive reform operation by the ruling EPRDF almost all parties who were also categorized as terrorist organizations have entered the country to compete peacefully.
